Back in 1998 I went to MadCon 5 in Madison, Wisconsin just for the fact that Harlan Ellison was there. I have always admired Harlan's writing and had been amused by his commentary's so I wanted to meet him.
While there he told several stories about L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology whom he knew. Many may not know that Hubbard started out as a pulp writer in many genres: westerns, war and of course science fiction. Not only was he a pulp writer, but he was a writer that didn't know when to quit. He just kept writing and writing making tomes instead of books. One only needs to see his Battlefield Earth to know that. Harlan recounted that when Hubbard bought his first electric typewriter he would feed meat packing paper into it off of a roll and would type until he the paper was in the way, then rip that 'page' off and continue on the next 'page'.
But the one story that amused the crowd was when he recounted the 'true story' on the start of his Church of Scientology. It seems that Hubbard was at a party talking with Lester Del Ray (of Del Ray Books and native Minnesotan). It seems that Hubbard was complaining to Del Ray about the all the taxes he had to pay to where Del Ray told him to 'start a religion and have a tax shelter'.
So if one wishes to believe this story or not, all I can say is that it came from the Harlan's mouth.
Eirik Farwanderer
9 December, 2009 Anno Domini.
While there he told several stories about L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology whom he knew. Many may not know that Hubbard started out as a pulp writer in many genres: westerns, war and of course science fiction. Not only was he a pulp writer, but he was a writer that didn't know when to quit. He just kept writing and writing making tomes instead of books. One only needs to see his Battlefield Earth to know that. Harlan recounted that when Hubbard bought his first electric typewriter he would feed meat packing paper into it off of a roll and would type until he the paper was in the way, then rip that 'page' off and continue on the next 'page'.
But the one story that amused the crowd was when he recounted the 'true story' on the start of his Church of Scientology. It seems that Hubbard was at a party talking with Lester Del Ray (of Del Ray Books and native Minnesotan). It seems that Hubbard was complaining to Del Ray about the all the taxes he had to pay to where Del Ray told him to 'start a religion and have a tax shelter'.
So if one wishes to believe this story or not, all I can say is that it came from the Harlan's mouth.
Eirik Farwanderer
9 December, 2009 Anno Domini.
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